Before Rishi Sunak was allowed to talk on last night’s BBC Question Time Leaders’ Special, he had to receive a volley from Kevin, a bearded Geordie. ‘I’m asking if you would confess to us tonight even just a small amount of embarrassment to be leading the Conservative Party into this election,’ said Kev.
Sunak nodded, feebly, and said: ‘Well good evening, everyone. Fiona, thank you for inviting me’ – proving, once again, that he cannot think on his feet.
Clap clap clap clap pic.twitter.com/d2HGLxKyC2
— Tom Harwood (@tomhfh) June 21, 2024
But it wasn’t just Rishi. The whole show was so grim. The QT format became a form of ritual torture, in which voters were egged on to pour scorn on the hapless pols. And hapless they were. Ed Davey, John Swinney, Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak – four mediocre media performers, four men seeking to engage with an audience and failing; trying to exude charisma yet sounding dull and flat.
‘It is not good for one’s morals to see bad acting,’ said Oscar Wilde. He was right. What was most striking, however, was how easily cowed these so-called leaders were in the face of aggressive and often quite moronic questioners.
‘There’s only two other countries in the world that don’t subscribe to the ECHR: Russia and Belarus!’ an angry bald man shouted at the Prime Minister. The presenter, Fiona Bruce, who had been so eager to correct the politicians when they slipped, let that glaringly incorrect statement pass. The audience naturally gave a loud round of applause.
Rishi could have replied: ‘Sir, with the greatest respect there are almost 200 countries in the world and fewer than fifty members of the European Convention on Human Rights, so I’m afraid you are talking rubbish.’
We ought to expect politicians to stand up to members of the public
Instead, he said: ‘Sir, with the greatest respect, we do not need a foreign court to tell us…’ Blah blah blah.
Earlier, a young man had said to Starmer: ‘At the moment, tensions with Europe are sort of at an all time high…How are you going to negotiate that?’
Neither Bruce nor Starmer saw fit to mention that tensions might have been a little higher, at various points, in the past thousand years. Never mind. Nobody likes a know-all.
Still, we ought to expect politicians to stand up to members of the public, especially when they are flat wrong. Apparently we don’t. We seem to be in a strange phase of democracy – a time when politicians and TV show hosts pretend to revere the public more and more as they really care less and less.
Britain is crying out for a more confident and charismatic political class, for leaders who aren’t too scared to tell the public when they are talking rot. We don’t have them.
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